Moral lit­er­ary works, writ­ten for Jew­ish women and by Jew­ish women, are trea­sure-hous­es of wise advice, both eth­i­cal and prac­ti­cal. The first-known Yid­dish book of this genre, Meneket Rivkah (Rivkah’s Nurse), reveals a lot about 16th cen­tu­ry Jew­ish women’s lives and their reli­gious prac­tices, yet it remains time­less. Meneket Rivkah was com­posed by Rivkah bat Meir, who was referred to at the time as ha-rab­bonit, the female rab­bi or female teacher. She died in 1605 and this work, which was pub­lished posthu­mous­ly in Prague in 1609, is a ver­i­ta­ble ban­quet of wis­dom. Imag­ine a com­bi­na­tion of Dr. Spock and ​“What to Expect When You Become a Wife and a Daugh­ter-in-law and a Moth­er” along with excerpts from Torah, Tal­mud, and Midrash. It includes Rivkah bat Meir’s ser­mons, her inter­pre­ta­tions of Torah, and oth­er reli­gious instruc­tions that would guide women in fam­i­ly relationships. 

Through­out the var­i­ous sec­tions, I could hear my par­ents’ voic­es giv­ing me the same advice on how to behave toward my husband’s par­ents, how to teach my chil­dren to become men­schen, how to be gen­er­ous in giv­ing char­i­ty, how it is bet­ter to eat mod­er­ate­ly, etc. Sprin­kled through­out are sto­ries, fables and para­bles, proverbs and exam­ples tak­en from Torah and Tal­mud and also from life expe­ri­ence that illus­trate the spe­cif­ic les­son. It is no won­der that this genre of lit­er­a­ture is also referred to as ​“illu­mi­na­tion lit­er­a­ture.” One page alone can make for a fas­ci­nat­ing learn­ing dis­cus­sion ses­sion for women — and for men, too. Abbre­vi­a­tions, bib­li­og­ra­phy, intro­duc­tion, scrip­tur­al index, sub­ject index, Yid­dish sub­ject index.